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One thing that I do, is base the TN off of the roleplaying. For example, let's say a player is trying to chat up a beautiful noble woman. If the player says "Your eyes are like starlight and your smile is the sun upon my face" I'm going to have a relatively low TN. Maybe 12. They can still make a mess of things, but it's more difficult. Or they might say "Wow babe, nice hoohas!" and the TN is going to be much higher (TN 18 or 20 maybe). Yeah, the TN 12 can still fail. Maybe she had a creepy stalker that used to always say that same line, and it puts her off. And yeah, the TN 20 can still succeed. Maybe it's so ridiculous that it makes her laugh. But the one is certainly much more likely to succeed then the other. That's what I do anyway, but all the people I play with always role before they roll (pun intended).

Morgoth wrote: Or they might say "Wow babe, nice hoohas!"

True story, that was what Beren first said to Luthien when he saw her dancing.

Morgoth wrote:One thing that I do, is base the TN off of the roleplaying....all the people I play with always role before they roll (pun intended).

This is how we do it, too: the roll is the roll, because social skills need to count, but I definitely tweak the TN if the player has done a particularly good (or bad) job of role-playing the interaction. (But I do the same thing for non-social skills and even combat roles, so this is not a special exception for encounters.)

Well that's another reason for having symmetry between Encounter, Travel, and Combat: roll Insight, and if you have bonus dice you can role-play to your heart's content and then take your bonus dice.

trystero wrote:

Morgoth wrote:One thing that I do, is base the TN off of the roleplaying....all the people I play with always role before they roll (pun intended).

This is how we do it, too: the roll is the roll, because social skills need to count, but I definitely tweak the TN if the player has done a particularly good (or bad) job of role-playing the interaction. (But I do the same thing for non-social skills and even combat roles, so this is not a special exception for encounters.)

With The One Ring, I tend to do the opposite. The player rolls the dice and then we act out the scene based on the result, positive or negative. It's the social skills of the character they're meant to be representing, not those of the player. The roll-narrate structure seems to work well for this.

Rocmistro wrote:

Morgoth wrote: Or they might say "Wow babe, nice hoohas!"

True story, that was what Beren first said to Luthien when he saw her dancing.

That made me laugh.

Valarian wrote:

trystero wrote:

Morgoth wrote:One thing that I do, is base the TN off of the roleplaying....all the people I play with always role before they roll (pun intended).

This is how we do it, too: the roll is the roll, because social skills need to count, but I definitely tweak the TN if the player has done a particularly good (or bad) job of role-playing the interaction. (But I do the same thing for non-social skills and even combat roles, so this is not a special exception for encounters.)

With The One Ring, I tend to do the opposite. The player rolls the dice and then we act out the scene based on the result, positive or negative. It's the social skills of the character they're meant to be representing, not those of the player. The roll-narrate structure seems to work well for this.

I think both approaches work: I'm happy with roleplay-then-roll because it allows both the player and the character to affect the outcome, but that doesn't mean that roll-then-roleplay is wrong. Whatever works for you and your group is clearly the right answer.

Again, I do this for all rolls: if the player can justify some advantage in a combat or encounter situation, I'll lower the TN for their attack by 2 (and if they've put themselves in a bad spot, I'll add +2 TN). It's the same mix of player and character skill for me.

1. Magical items, weapons and armours that are not tied to Cultural Rewards, so that anyone can make use of them. Nothing on the order of Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer, but items on the order of Sting or salves that improve healing wounds, burns, and such.

2. Guidelines on how to handle encounters with hostile or dangerous beasts and a catalogue of ordinary creatures of Middle-earth that would make for interesting encounters. One PC might be interested in falconry; another might want a bear or wolf for a companion. How does one defeat a hungery crocodile? Or deal with a bite from a venomous snake?

Otaku-sempai wrote:2. Guidelines on how to handle encounters with hostile or dangerous beasts and a catalogue of ordinary creatures of Middle-earth that would make for interesting encounters. One PC might be interested in falconry; another might want a bear or wolf for a companion. How does one defeat a hungery crocodile? Or deal with a bite from a venomous snake?

I agree with the first half of this idea, but not the second. I much prefer how things are right now, meaning that familiars, animal companions and such are handled as part of the PCs skills and virtues, rather than an independent creature. This reduce the bookkeeping and makes these more integral to the character's identity in my opinion.

I'd love to see the following in official materials:

• I'd like an explicit intermediate step between normal but Daunting difficult tasks and Epic tasks. Basically, a 1 liner, say, "Tasks harder than Daunting (TN 20) difficulty do not succeed automatically on a Gandalf, instead, count the gandalf as a 10."
• I'd love a second or third option for the calling based traits.
• I'd love an official option to make End off of Body instead of Heart.
• High Level rules for going beyond Valor and Wisdom 6 (perhaps as simple as "No matter how high the valor or wisdom, these abilities never test with more than 6 dice" and costs for ranks 7-12.)
• MORE SPELLS! Especially for dwarves. Keep them REALLY thematic, like the official 6 for elves and 3 for dwarves are. Perhaps a second "field" of spells should be a separate virtue.
• More cultures. Rhovanion, River Folk, Rohan. (I don't normally use fan-made ones.)
• More combat action choices. (I've adapted someone else's list, and find them working well enough.)
• More weapons and heavier armors (including explicit scale and "Breast & Back").
• The insight roll for gaining bonus dice in social situations.